Southern anti-election protest leader gets suspended jail term

Two years after the 2014 coup d’état, a provincial court in southern Thailand has handed a suspended jail term to a leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) over an anti-election protest.

Ranong Provincial Court on Wednesday, 27 July 2016, handed a jail term of one year and six months and a 30,000 baht fine to Sucheep Patthong, a leader of the PDRC protest in Ranong.

According to the verdict, Sucheep also lost his rights to participate in elections for five years. However, the court halved the sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment and a 15,000 baht fine as Sucheep pleaded guilty. His jail term is suspended for two years.

Sucheep was indicted together with Phoemsak Chanmani and Sudaporn Yodpinit, two other local PDRC leaders, for preventing the sub-committee of the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) from organising advanced voting in the February 2014 general election.

Unlike Sucheep who pleaded guilty, the other two denied the accusation.

In July 2015, the Criminal Court dismissed charges against PDRC demonstrators who barred the Din Daeng District Office in northern Bangkok on 2 February 2014 to prevent the distribution of ballot papers to polling stations.

The court ruled that there was no evidence that the PDRC demonstrators used padlocks to barricade the gate of the District Office as indicted.

The Criminal Court also cited an earlier ruling of the Constitutional Court that the PDRC demonstrations at the time of the general election in February were lawful.

On 2 February 2014, 175 polling stations could not open because PDRC protesters prevented the transportation of ballot papers from the Din Daeng District Office.

On 30 September 2015, Khaosod English reported that around 20 anti-establishment red shirts went to the Attorney General’s Office to demand an explanation for the delay in prosecuting 31 leaders and activists of the PDRC who campaigned against the elected administration of Yingluck Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister, from November 2013 to May 2014.

“We are here to ask, where is that rebel Suthep?” read one placard held by a red shirt, referring to PDRC leader Suthep Thaugsuban.

Sucheep Patthong, a leader of the PDRC protest in Ranong (Photo from Sucheep's Facebook account)

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